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Monday, March 8, 2010

Usually when I pass by this noodle place in the Elements mall, all I see is a long line up. I hate lining up in general so usually I would end up somewhere else within the mall. My mom and I were here pretty early this evening and it was certainly an interesting scene to find the place half only 80% full! We took the chance and gave it a try. Worth the long line up? hummm ... yes and no in my opinion. I think one of the reasons why there is always a line up is because of the lack of choices within this mall, the lack of restaurants that offer food within this price range. Simple as that I think.

The bench seats were open style meaning people walking by can literally look at your food very closely. I would not be very comfortable with that especially when there are no windows separating the restaurants and the mall.

The Xaio Long Bao was surprising well made both its presentation and the thickness of the outer skin. Traceable amount of meat juice was inside and had to be careful when eating. Only if the flavors can be stronger than it would be wonderful.

From my many years of ordering the Braised Dry Bean Curd and Black Fungus in Brown Sauce, it should be served cold as a cold appetizer. Am I incorrect with this assumption? (especially when the item was under COLD APPETIZER? Anyhow, if I did not mention it before, it was served very warm! It wasn't bad but it being warm was just different in terms of flavors and texture in my opinion.

Nothing overly exciting about the Baby Cabbage in Soup, only wish it can be smaller in size because it was pretty hard to eat them without making a mess.

The soup from the Stewed Noodle Soup with Yellow Fish was very rich and intense which I liked very much. Out of curiosity I asked the staff what type of soup it was and she told me it was pure pork bone soup, just richer. However, I honestly tasted a very strong traces of fish flavors from the soup. Perhaps pork bone soup with fish? The noodle was on the softer side as it should be for this type of stewed noodles. A special thanks to my mom who held up the noodles for me!

My mom ordered the Noodle Soup with Deep Fried Pork Rib and the types of noodles and soup were quite different from mine of course. Didn't try it but I did realize that the the noodles were pre-cut (see the middle). I think they should ask when placing order whether we like it cut or not because some do prefer to slurp up noodles.

We also ordered Deep Fried Sliced Sole in Sweet and Sour Sauce and yes it was sour indeed! The fish itself was good just the sauce wasn't my cup of tea.

I don't about you but I am not a big fan of these type of wooden spoon. It looked cool but rather hard to clean and won't last long I think. Ummm ... and the color ... hummm

Likes:

Xaio Long Bao - pretty decent with enough meat juice inside.

Stewed Noodle Soup with Yellow Fish - the soup was good, rich and intense in terms of flavors. Still trying to sort out what type of soup it was, fish or pork? or both?

Dislikes:

Braised Dry Bean Curd and Black Fungus in Brown Sauce - served warm??? I thought it should be served cold as described on the menu?

5 comments:

cheeky angel
said...

I agree with you about price being one of the main reason why this place always has long queues. They also don't take reservations.

I've found the noodles there to be only so-so and the soup to be rather bland at times (when I've had the noodle soup with deep fried pork rib/ chop), but I agree that the xiao long baos are good. I've also tried the noodle soup in spicy sesame sauce with deep fried pork rib/ chop but the English name is very misleading as there was no sesame that I could see but there was plenty of chopped peanuts, which made the bowl of noodles very filling.

And another thing is that I don't like the fact that they automatically give you Chinese tea and then charge you for it but you don't find out until you get the bill. I expect this when I go to a proper Chinese restuarant but not a noodle shop, albeit a rather "high-end" one.

Jason, there is nothing wrong with having the gluten, mushroom and black fungus as a warm dish. My mom makes it at home and it is always eaten warm the first time. The leftovers are put in the fridge and served cold for the following meals.

@Peech: Thanks for the information! It proves once again that I have much to learn. I guess in most places they are served cold and I incorrectly assumed so. I truly need to explore different cuisines / regional cuisines, perhaps by visiting those places more often! By the way, is it hard to make that dish from scratch?